UnionPay International announced today that it has signed collaboration agreements with Uzcard, the bankcard switch association in Uzbekistan, and its member bank, Aloqabank. According to the agreements, Uzcard will replace the 10 million Uzcard cards with UnionPay-Uzcard chip cards. This is the first time Uzbekistan issues wage cards of the UnionPay brand. Aloqabank also becomes the first local bank to issue UnionPay-Uzcard chip cards. Cai Jianbo, CEO of UnionPay International, Farruh Nigmatov, Vice General Manager of Uzcard, and Nasiba Nasretdinova, Vice President of Aloqabank jointly attended the signing ceremony.

Uzbekistan is a significant country along the Belt and Road, and the bilateral collaboration in trade, investment, finance and communications between China and Uzbekistan is deepening continuously. In answer to this trend, UnionPay International is carrying out collaboration with Uzcard to strengthen the interconnection between the two countries’ payment industry. Uzcard provides switch and clearing service for all the POS terminals and ATMs in Uzbekistan, and has issued 20 million bankcards of the Uzcard brand, 90% of which are wage cards. Since the second half of 2017, Uzcard is actively seeking collaboration opportunities with international bankcard brands to realize global acceptance of its cards.

With this collaboration, Uzcard will replace about half of the Uzcards in circulation with UnionPay cards, and will promote large-scale issuance of new cards. Multiple factors contributed to Uzcard’s choosing of UnionPay cards to be the wage card of Uzbek residents: Firstly, UnionPay’s acceptance environment in Uzbekistan is improving rapidly, and is expected to realize 100% acceptance next year. Secondly, leveraging on UnionPay’s global acceptance network, Uzcard card will be accepted in 168 countries and regions for the first time. Thirdly, the card issuance paves way for future cooperation in mobile payments based on UnionPay cards, while leveraging on UnionPay’s advantages in innovative payment products and services.

Cai Jianbo said, this collaboration marks a new breakthrough in the localization of UnionPay business along the Belt and Road, and is of great significance: On the one hand, it is realized through a new collaboration model. Through tripartite cooperation among UnionPay International, the local switch network and issuer, UnionPay realizes large-scale card issuance in Uzbekistan. On the other hand, the collaboration expands the use scope of the cards originally accepted in Uzbekistan only to markets beyond the country, offering greater convenience to the local residents’ daily life and international travel. The two sides are discussing on deeper collaboration to build innovative payment platforms for contactless payment, QR code payment and online payment based on the UnionPay standards, so as to realize interconnection between the switch networks of China and Uzbekistan.

Farruh Nigmatov said, we are very glad to jointly roll out UnionPay-Uzcard card with UnionPay International. The card will bring brand new payment experiences to the Uzbek customers’ international travels. We are looking forward to carrying out further collaboration with UnionPay International in more areas.

Nasiba Nasretdinova said, there are over 700 Chinese enterprises in Uzbekistan and the total trade volume between the two countries is approximately 8 billion dollars. UnionPay is an important method to ensure smooth payment between the two countries. Aloqabank is confident to the future collaboration with UnionPay International, and hopes to offer more card products to business travelers, immigrants and exchange students.

To date, UnionPay is present in about 60 countries and regions along the Belt and Road. More than 25 million UnionPay cards are issued in the region, supporting the personnel exchanges between China and the Belt and Road. In Laos, Mongolia and Myanmar, UnionPay has become the top card brand in terms of cards issued. In Pakistan, over 4.1 million UnionPay cards are issued, and “UnionPay” has become the No.2 international bankcard brand in terms of card issuance. Moreover, 1.5 UnionPay cards are issued in Russia and over 1.2 million UnionPay cards are issued in Kazakhstan.